Method and system for collecting synchronizing, and reporting telecommunication call events and work flow related information

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for recording and generating additional information related to telecommunication events using a mobile communication device, such as a telephone call or a text messaging event using cellular phone or a personal digital assistant. Specifically, the preferred embodiments of the present invention records information such as GPS coordinates that indicate a position of the mobile communication device during the communication event, as well as a location of a sender or receiver of data to or from the mobile communication device, so as to facilitate a log entry of the position of the mobile communication device as well as other useful information that are associated with the communication events.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority from Provisional Application No. 60 / 493,704, titled “Method and System for Collecting, Synchronizing, and Reporting Telecommunication Call Events and Work Flow Related Information,” filed on Aug. 8, 2003. the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Field of Invention [0003] This present invention relates to the capturing, processing, mapping, reporting, and displaying of telecommunication call events that occur on either landline or wireless telecommunication devices (i.e., POTS telephones, cellular telephones, 3G-based wireless data / telephones, etc.), where the information content of the telecommunication call events can be presented locally on the device or remotely on a desktop or laptop computer using a computer application or a web browser that can interface to an online networked server. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Telecommunication devices, specifically wireless telephones, are ach...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0071] It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system to provide the association of Telecommunication Call Events with any public or private database record, specifically with the association of either White Pages or Yellow Pages (i.e., Points of Interest (POI)) information with Telecommunication Call Events and vise-versa. It should be noted that White Pages and Yellow Pages information is very similar to vCard information with minor field variations and a different data compilation process. The White or Yellow Pages data fields are searchable and capable of being correlated with Telecommunication Call Events. In one embodiment, a Telecommunication Device received a call from telephone number (732) 792-4265 on Jun. 17, 2001 at 4:30 PM EST. In this embodiment, the Telecommunication Device received said telephone call and synchronized the Telecommunication Call Events information (such as, but not limited to, the telephone number of caller, telephone number of called, time stamp when call was started, call duration, time stamp when call was ended, voice call, received call event, non-roaming call, etc.) to an online networked server. Using a web browser, a user is able to view information about the White Pages (i.e., consumers and businesses) or Yellow Pages (i.e., business) listing that initiated the call using the server's capability to correlate the received Caller-ID provided telephone number with the telephone number stored in the White or Yellow Pages database listing. This same object provides the capability for viewing said correlated White or Yellow Pages database listing for said Telecommunication Call Events either locally on the Telecommunication Device or remotely, such as from another computing device or other Telecommunication Device.

[0158] The user signs in to an application that is running on the wireless phone and retrieves his recently searched Places that were searched for on the web. The user is then able to quickly map the dentist office (i.e., the Place) and even directly call the dentist office (i.e., since the Place information contains the phone number of the dentist), in the event that he might be late for his appointment. The user can do all this from his wireless telephone without having to perform a new search on the phone or call 411 to get the dentist office's phone number. Additionally this invention provides the user with the ability to dynamically create a route from their current location (i.e., route origin) to the dentist office (i.e., route destination) without having to enter in the destination address, which is very cumbersome on a wireless phone. In another embodiment, a user is able to retrieve a Place that was searched for and saved to the online server system from their wireless telephone by simple requesting recently saved Places by clicking on a menu option on their wireless telephone. After retrieving and selecting the desired Place the user is able to take a picture using the camera that is integrated into the wireless telephone, and then associate the picture with said Place on the wireless telephone application. Additionally, the application that is running on the user's wireless telephone will then transfer or synchronize the picture to the online server system so that when the user accesses the Place using a web browser on a laptop, the user will be able to see the picture that they took associated with the particular Place. Similarly, in another embodiment, the Place was not searched for on the web, but instead on the wireless phone. In a similar embodiment, a recently saved route was retrieved onto the wireless telephone and a set of pictures that were taken on the wireless phone were associated with the route and transferred or synchronized to the online server system for later viewing.

Problems solved by technology

A problem with existing prior art CPE and switch systems is that they only provide a mechanism for capturing call logs at the switch that the telecommunication device interfaces with.

This is not practical with wireless telecommunication devices, since acquiring access to a switch at a base station is not reasonable due to the large number of base stations necessary to create a cellular wireless network.

Also, accessing the call logs directly from different wireless or landline carriers introduces interface and connection issues, since carriers use different standards that are not compatible with other carriers.

Another problem with accessing the call logs directly from a wireless or landline carrier is that each telecommunication carrier, which may be grouped in a local area or across an entire continent, would have to provide access to, or expose, call log information for their entire user-base on their networks.

This introduces a significant privacy problem, in addition to requiring significant bandwidth to transport all of the users'call logs, since not all users on said networks will subscribe to this advanced service that integrates and associates call logs with database records.

Yet another problem is that call logging by the wireless or landline carrier only provides call logs specifically for billing purposes, and the advanced Telecommunication Call Events that the telecommunication device can provide are not provided.

An additional problem with existing call logging systems, such as the CPE, is that the centralized logging solution does not always have the capability of being disabled or turned off.

It is yet another problem with the prior art system when a user owns or makes calls from multiple telecommunication devices (i.e., a landline telephone, a wireless telephone, etc.), specifically when the telecommunication devices are operated on different carrier networks, since interfacing with each call logging switch amongst all of the carriers that the telecommunication device connects with is a very difficult and daunting task.

This problem is further exaggerated if the user owns a wireless telecommunication device with roaming capability and “roams” into a different wireless carrier network.

Another problem with existing database applications, such as CRM applications, is that the user is required to manually enter the Telecommunication Call Event associations (i.e., such as telephone number associations) into database records, such as Contact data (i.e., vCARD), Accounts, or the like.

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